Three English-based footballers will play for Bulgaria against Wales today, according to the national website of Wales, icwales.co.uk.

Leicester’s Radostin Kishishev, Aston Villa’s Stiliyan Petrov and Manchester City’s Martin Petrov will play in the first match since the return of 62-year-old Dimitar Penev as Bulgarian coach.

Penev was appointed to his second run as coach in August 2007, taking the place of Hristo Stoichkov, who quit the position in April to head Spain’s Celta Vigo.

At the moment, Bulgaria is in training for European Championship qualifiers against the Netherlands and Luxembourg, to be held in September 2007.

The team ranks second in Group G with 15 points from seven matches, two points behind their Balkan rival Romania.

The withdrawal of Tottenham striker Dimitar Berbatov and Charlton’s Svetislav Todorov due to injury posed setbacks to the team.

Another blow to Penev’s squad was a serious knee injury to Manchester City’s new midfielder Valeri Bojinov in Sunday’s Manchester derby. The player is expected to be on the bench for five months.

Penev said: “It is a very bad blow for us losing Bojinov to such a bad injury.”

These changes have led Penev to add CSKA Sofia striker Georgi Chilikov to the national squad after nearly a five-year absence.